


Between the lines

by Excavatrice



Category: 1st Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth 1., Robert Dudley - Fandom, The Tudors RPF, The Virgin Queen (TV)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, F/M, Love, Love Letters, Possession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-21
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 11:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4177677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Excavatrice/pseuds/Excavatrice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What is between the lines in the letters from Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester to Queen Elizabeth 1?<br/>All their letters are somehow restrained. The letters could - and maybe would - be read by others.<br/>These are the explicit versions of love letters never written.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I hath tryed using some Elizabethan spelling.

_Robin to Bess:_

Thy servant humbly kis's your feet, your majesty. … etc.

All your lyttle whyte toes I will kiss and suckle and ticle as I wont nothyng more than hear you laugh. When you have softened under my tender teasings, I shall advance my kissings to the place I see right in front of my face, when I kneel before my empress and only love, feeling thy hand caressing my hair, my ear, all shivering, e'er yours.  
ôô

 

_Robin to Bess:_

Recieve theese pearls as a token of my loyal friendship. … etc.

Each bead I chose with you in mind, holding it my hand, feeling its rounded perfektyon in the murky shop of and old jew in Netherland. You, my treasure, sweet mistress, are like the pearl of England, layer upon layer of hard times that life bestove of us both, is adding more glow and shine to your presence. These pearls, covered in soft meat of the rugged, hard oyster is like your lyttle hidden pearl. Behind the harsh ruler, under the strict confining garments of my majesty, is the body of a woman and its gems.  
ôô

 

_Robin to Bess:_

How can I thank my majesty for her royal grant? … etc.

To this castle I shall add a tower. Should your majesty e'er come this way, there will be a bed ready for you in the chambers in the top, where we can wake up together, seeing through the wyndows of glass, that I have sent for, so my ladys good health can benefyt from the lyght and air on the countrysyde. From this tower we can see the newly sowen fields, where the seagulls squawk finding their modest game. In the evenings, my adored lady and I shall cry too, in happiness having found each other, loud and free, to ev'ry one to hear, miles away, sounds of passion coming through the open wyndows.

ôô


	2. Ashes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unsent letters from Robin to Bess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I imagine that Robert Dudley could see right through Queen Elizabeth 1, clever guy. And that he could say almost everyting to her, when they were alone together. Except this.

_Robin to Bess:_

What do you see, when you see me Bess? Sometimes a sudden fear darkens your eyes when I startle you, when I walk too silent, when I surprise you. I kiss your hand and you clutch it in a fist. Before you see it's just me, your sweet Robin, who do you see? A man? A french swordsman coming to execute you? An angry, bearlike shape, towering over you, disapproving you, disowning you, rejecting you? Do you see a harbinger of bad news, coming to tell you of the death of yet another mother? I work for you like a man, I dress like a man (or like a peacock to fit the image of a royal companion) but I must ever talk to you like the child you played with, the boy who wrote you silly letters in latin and passed it to you under the school desk. Diligis me? Tu meo nupserit?  
Pray tell, Bess, what happened to you in Seymors house? I don't want a piece of you, I don't want to harm you in secrecy, to force a child upon you, to use you as a pawn. I'm not any of those men. I'm me, and now I am a man too. I want you to talk to me. I just want - all of you.  
ôô

You scold me, Bess. You ridicule me in front of everybody. I feel like dropping myself to the floor, all flattened out, like a pilgrim before the altar. Would that appease you, oh, cherished center of my world? Lay upon me any grim task, take your sorrows out on me, hurt me, have me whipped as the scapegoat of our school time together, when I took my pranks too far. But don't shun me, don't send me away.  
ôô

Here comes your chaste knight from the ballads, Bess. Have mercy upon me.  
ôô

I kept us alive another day in this world of noblemen and commoners, Bess. Would I not, there was another life for us, you and I in the house you gave me in Wales. A toddler playing in front of us and an infant in your arms. The light from the fireplace caressing your face. But here we are, in a world with only two directions, stay in power, or face death. Like drowning people we fight, step on the heads of the unfortunate, just to breathe the air. Who can blame us?  
ôô

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dropped the Elysabethan spellyng in this chapter.


End file.
